Nerd Corp

For a little over a year now, I have been helping out with a local company call Olmax Fabrication, also known as Speed & Custom Cycles. A majority of the work that I have done for and with them has been layout and design work on projects ranging from their website to advertisements to dealership packets. Up until this weekend, I knew the "book smart" side of public relations and how to use it to help a company.

I've heard professors drone on about target markets and about knowing your demographic and so on and so forth. It struck me this weekend that there is an essential difference between knowing your public and thinking you know your public. The product that we are working on promoting right now is called the SS Trike (http://www.sstrikes.com). In a broad sense, our key public are bikers.

Let's step back for a moment and cover the basics. I grew up Central Wisconsin to a traditional christian family. Attach the typical stereotypes and you can try to put yourself in my shoes. Growing up, my dad was an avid Goldwing enthusiast and my mom at one point had a little Yamaha FJ750. We used to take family afternoon motorcycle rides at leisure and I eventually shared the passion myself, albeit I have a bike to call my own.

To briefly summarize, going into the weekend, I knew about the product, I had a (what I assumed to be) decent background in motorcycles, and the stereotypes and rumors I had heard. This weekend, I was part of the team that took the SS Trike to debut at the 2009 Donnie Smith Invitational Bike Show. It didn't take long for some of my stereotypes to be confirmed and others to be thrown right out the window.

Typical bikers are crude people. To give you an example, the t-shirt vendor across the isle from us was called "Shake your T****s." That is the stereotype that I was expecting. The one that I was, ashamedly, caught off guard by was their disregard of the expense of their passion. There were a few questions that were asked all day long, including: How big is the front rim, How big is the gas tank, How does it handle, and How much does it cost?

When we answered the last question, our response was some variation of "starting at $24,900." In my opinion, a "typical" person's response would have been shock and disbelief. That's more than most people spend on a car. That's a significant down payment a house or mortgage. I could pay off all my bills for that much. What was the response en mass? "That's not too bad," or "That's less than I was expecting." I was shocked to say the least.

Why was it then this innocuous response stood out in my mind's eye? I had inappropriately judge a book by its cover. I never spent the time getting to know these bikers, who they were, and what makes them tick. I am, by no means, an expert on Biker Culture from the last two days, but it has changed my paradigm. I'm passionate about technology and gadgets, cars, and computers. It shouldn't surprise anyone, that a majority of my disposable income goes towards these things. Doesn't it make sense that if riding [motorcycles] was someone's passion, that they would spend whatever amount they felt was reasonable? Just because I can't afford it, doesn't mean others can't.

Lessons learned:

• You can't judge a book by its cover.
• Don't rely on what you think you know about people. Get to know your publics firsthand before you try to tell them what they need
• Keep an open mind and allow your opinions become more fluid.